MORE TO TEW ON

The transcript of the Guardian's hour-long, wide-ranging interview with Steve Tew, the forthright chief executive of the New Zealand Rugby Union, ran to nearly 4,000 words. To avoid leaving a fair chunk of it on the cutting-room floor, here is an unedited response to four questions:

1) What is the NZRU doing to help the Pacific Islands and will the All Blacks tour there for the first time?

Touring the islands is a dilemma. We get criticised by the media for not contributing to the islands but when you look at the number of players taking part in this World Cup, you will find that New Zealand are pretty big contributors. New Zealand and Samoa are intertwined as countries. The NZRU's president's [Bryan Williams's] son [Paul] is the full-back for Samoa and Bryan is a previous coach of Samoa, and a successful one.

We have a very close and direct relationship with the islands. Whether the best thing for us, and for them, is to play there is a matter we debate quite a lot. We would like that question to be put in context with what we do to help them. We are not actually convinced that taking the All Blacks to Apia [the capital of Samoa] or Nuku'alofa [that of Tonga] is actually the best thing; there are a host of other things on the table. They would love us to play on the islands but we get half a dozen offers a year from countries you would not expect us to play: I have regular correspondence from people in Hamburg who want us to play in Germany, and there is Spain, the USA and Portugal.

We are responsible for governing rugby in this country and the question is what is best for the All Blacks. To date, we do not think all those things are lined up. We have not been to any of the islands for some time, but the Junior All Blacks have and the New Zealand Maori have. We will continue to do all we can to help those countries, including playing Fiji here this year and a game was offered to Samoa, too. We were disappointed that the rule on players appearing for just one country was not changed this year. Some of the other countries around the world did not see the benefit of building on the investment that has been made in, in particular, Fiji, Samoa and Tonga. It would have been an enormous leap forward has we abandoned the one-country rule so that players could play for two nations if they stood down for a period of time and they had a legitimate connection to that country. I am not saying how unions on the International Rugby Board voted and will leave that up to them.

2) How will being an Olympic sport benefit rugby union?

The chance to take part in the Olympics is a major watershed for rugby and not many people get that yet. Doors are opening. The IRB management deserve credit for the amount of effort and energy and political lobbying that went into that because it was not straightforward. [The board chairman] Bernard Lapasset's international view of the world has been very significant for rugby and we need to build on it and we have to make sure that what we do between the four-year Olympic cycle is sensible.

We have a huge amount of work to do in the women's game because while men's sevens is well organised in some places, the women's game is significantly further behind that. Qualification will be important. Will there be a team GB? This might sound a bit vested, but if we are talking about the islands it would be a real shame if in Oceania we had Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Samoa and Tonga, five of the best sevens nations in the world, all vying for the same slot. That would be tough and we are not resting on our laurels.

The big challenge we have all got is that while we are encouraged by the displays of some of the second- and third-tier nations, there is still a huge gap and we need to be in a position in 2015 and 2019 where more than four or five teams are likely to make the semi-finals. We have to get better. When you think about the Fifa World Cup, many sides can get to the last four.

I think the rugby landscape will change significantly over the next 12 years because the opportunity presented by rugby becoming an Olympic sport has been underestimated. We could see the tournament hosted by a country like Russia, if not in my lifetime, and China. We know from discussions we are having with our colleagues in those countries about the effort and energy being put in there. Japan will be a bit of a test for a non-rugby nation in 2019 but we voted for them and we think they will do a good job. It will be different, but then this tournament is different from France four years ago and England in 2015 will be different again.

3) Will the All Blacks lift the World Cup?

We want our team to win the tournament and, as you have seen for the last 20 years, that is not easily achieved. You can come in as the highest ranked team in the world, the favourites and the hosts but still not progress to where you want to go to. New Zealand and South Africa are the only hosts who have won the World Cup. We are not taking anything as guaranteed but hope the guys take playing at home as a positive.

We want to leave a tangible legacy so that the game is better off. We have invested heavily in this World Cup and we are a financial partner, a decision we took very carefully because we do not play with rugby money lightly. We have some facilities that will be fantastic for a long period of time, such as new and upgraded stadia, and that would not have been the case but for the World Cup. They are physical legacies and we want an internal rugby benefit. We have 6,500 volunteers in the tournament and we hope some of them stay involved afterwards. This is probably the biggest rugby moment in our lifetimes.

I hope we do it but it is a knockout tournament. If you knew who was going to win you would not have the media here. I had a very interesting moment in France during the semi-finals. The global chief executive of Adidas came anyway even though we [the All Blacks] weren't there and hosted lunch for us. We were feeling that we had let them down. He said at the end of the day the Adidas brand would not be what it was if sport was predictable. "You guys tried very hard and you fell short. Our support is unwavering."

4) Will the NZRU be able to hold on to its best players after the tournament?

Richie McCaw and Dan Carter have been an important part of our retention work. They have recommitted to stay. They will both go down as great All Blacks, which is not easily achieved in this country. I have had the huge privilege of seeing the vast majority of Richie's 100 appearances for the All Blacks and have a huge amount of respect for a player in any country who achieves that, but in our place the competition for that jersey is so tough.

Those two staying was important and we have seen a big take-up from the other guys. A key plank for us is that you cannot be an All Black unless you play your rugby here. While that policy has its critics and will always be the subject of review, it is fundamental not just to the strength of the All Blacks but to future teams because it means that the best players stay in our competitions. Since we went to Under-20s, which was another European push, we have not lost a game. We are continuing to produce world-class players and our systems are working.